Pointing DNS to WP Engine

The last step to “go live” with your WP Engine managed WordPress website is to update your DNS. This will allow traffic to come from your domain to your WordPress website hosted on WP Engine. This process starts at your DNS manager, which is most often where you bought the domain.

There are several methods for pointing DNS to WP Engine. The preferred method is flattening DNS records because we find it be the most scalable solution. CNAME, ANAME, Alias and A record methods will all work to point DNS to WP Engine.

NOTE: Before changing your DNS records, complete the rest of the Going Live steps!

Why is DNS Record Flattening Recommended?

The apex domain refers to your domain with nothing out front, EX: mydomain.com. For most website hosts, your apex domain would be pointed using a A record to a static IP address.
While the A record method will work to point DNS to WP Engine, we actually recommend configuring using one of the following methods instead, as they are pointed to a CNAME value: CNAME, ANAME or Alias.

NOTE: If your website lives/will live on a subdomain (EX: blog.mydomain.com) then a single CNAME record will be sufficient as it can be pointed independently of the apex record.

As a managed WordPress host, WP Engine may migrate your site internally to another server either by request or in an emergency. While migrations are quite rare, it’s important to understand how this possibility may impact your peace of mind down the road. After a migration, the WP Engine system automatically sets up a proxy for your site. If a visitor requests the old server IP for your domain, the temporary proxy sends traffic to your new IP. While this will keep your site up temporarily, this proxy can cause issues with SSL, APIs and performance.

(Option 1) CNAME Flattening

Several services now offer CNAME flattening support. This essentially means your apex record (non-www) can be pointed with a CNAME, rather than an A record. CNAME flattened records will ultimately look like the following:

Record Purpose

Type

Name

Target

Apex/Root Domain Record (non-www)

CNAME

@ or mydomain.com

environment.wpengine.com

www Domain Record

CNAME

www

environment.wpengine.com

Any Subdomain Records

CNAME

blog, shop, etc.

environment.wpengine.com

NOTE: If your website lives on a subdomain, such as blog.domain.com or shop.mystore.com, adjusting the root and WWW records are not necessary. Only the subdomain record is required to point a subdomain.

Cloudflare is our primary recommendation for CNAME flattening, as it makes adding additional services through Cloudflare down the road far easier. The steps below will have you first configure your CNAME records in Cloudflare, then update your domain’s nameservers to point to Cloudflare.

If your “www” record here is an alias of your domain, (the value field will be your apex domain or @) you can leave it as-is.

If it points to an IP address, you will need to perform steps 4 & 5 for the “www” record as well.

You should end up with two records that look similar to this:

Scroll further down on this page and locate Nameservers

This step will be performed at your DNS host.

Cloudflare will show you two different nameservers values.

Leave this tab open so you can easily copy and paste them in the next step!

At your DNS host find the area to edit your nameservers.

Typically, this is in the same area where you manage DNS records. You may need to select an option to set “custom nameservers”.

Change the nameservers to the ones shown in the Cloudflare pane.

That’s it! You can track propagation of your DNS changes on a site like this. Be advised, the nameservers and DNS settings may take some time to change over from here. This is largely dependent on your DNS host itself, so if you have concerns regarding propagation, reach out to the DNS provider where you purchased the domain and where you pointed the nameservers to Cloudflare.

NOTE: Updating the Nameservers for your domain will affect all records associated with it, including email addresses. Be sure to work with your email host to copy over any extra DNS records into Cloudflare.

(Option 2) ANAME Record

Some services allow your apex/root domain to be configured using an ANAME record. This is similar to an ALIAS or CNAME record, in the sense that it can point to a dynamic CNAME address. You will add an ANAME record (for the root domain) and a CNAME record (for the www or any subdomains) to DNSMadeEasy. Records configured in this way will look like the following:

Record Purpose

Type

Value

Resolves From

Root Domain Record

ANAME

Leave blank, implies root domain

environment.wpengine.com

www Domain Record

ANAME

www

environment.wpengine.com

Subdomain Record

ANAME

blog, shop, etc.

environment.wpengine.com

NOTE: If your website lives on a subdomain, such as blog.domain.com or shop.mystore.com, adjusting the root and WWW records are not necessary. Only the subdomain record is required to point a subdomain.

(Option 3) Alias Record

Alias records work the same as ANAME and CNAME records in the sense that your root/apex domain can be pointed to a dynamic CNAME. You will configure your root domain using an alias record (which is typically denoted with a blank record name, rather than @), and the www or any subdomain records using a CNAME record. Records configured in this way will look like the following:

Record Purpose

Type

Name

Value

Root Domain Record

Alias

Leave blank, implies root domain

environment.wpengine.com

www Domain Record

CNAME

www

environment.wpengine.com

Subdomain Record

Alias

blog, shop, etc.

environment.wpengine.com

NOTE: If your website lives on a subdomain, such as blog.domain.com or shop.mystore.com, adjusting the root and WWW records are not necessary. Only the subdomain record is required to point a subdomain.

(Option 4) Configuring DNS Using an A Record

Pointing your A record to your static WP Engine IP will work just fine, but you will need to update your DNS records if your website is ever migrated to a new server while your website hosted with us. Records configured in this way will look like the following:

Record Purpose

Type

Name

Points to

Root Domain Record

A

@ or mydomain.com

WP Engine IP Address (EX: 123.456.78.09)

www Domain Record

CNAME

www

@

Subdomain Record

CNAME

blog, shop, etc.

environment.wpengine.com

NOTE: If your website lives on a subdomain, such as blog.domain.com or shop.mystore.com, adjusting the root and WWW records are not necessary. Only the subdomain record is required to point a subdomain.

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